Hays Lady Rebel junior guard Lily Guevara drives the baseline as a Westlake Chaparral player arrives in defense during a game played in December. On Friday, Guevara was honored by the Lady Rebel coaching staff by reaching the 1,000 career point milestone during the team's Jan. 28 game against Akins.
Hays girls basketball team’s (5-10) final home game of the season was a bitter end to a tough district schedule as Lake Travis (14-1) came into Bales Gym on Friday night and wreaked havoc in the 51-20 win over the Lady Rebels.
“I thought they (Hays) played hard tonight, I thought they really played hard,” Hays head coach Danny Preuss said. “It’s just that player by player they (Cavaliers) were better than us and that’s tough.”
From the jump the Lady Cavaliers controlled the tempo of the game with their full court press defense, which gave Hays fits as they were never able to get into an offensive rhythm. Over the four quarters the Lady Rebels had 28 total turnovers, many coming from errant passes attempting to break the Lake Travis press.
“We’ve been doing a pretty good job on turnovers this year,” said Preuss. “Last year’s team I think averaged 27 turnovers a game, but we kept it under 20 this year on average. That’s better for us, but tonight was bad. It was like we thought everybody was seven-foot tall when we were throwing it to them.”
Whenever the Lady Rebels were able to get into a half court offense they created open shots, but weren’t able to sink enough of them as they fell behind Lake Travis 30-12 in the first half.
Hays offense scored just four points per quarter, with the exception an eight point second quarter. The Lady Rebels went 0-of-9 from beyond the arc, while also going 2-of-7 from the free throw line.
“We’ve got to find a way to get the ball in the basket, we had opportunities but we couldn’t finish,” said Preuss.
On the other end of the court Hays defense played strong, but eight three-point makes by Lake Travis was a difference maker. The Lady Cavaliers had three players score in the double digits with junior Kate Gordon having 14 points, freshman Mia Galbraith with 11 points and sophomore Raeven Boswell with 10 points.
For Hays the biggest highlight of the night came in the pregame as Preuss and the team honored junior forward Lily Guevara for reaching the 1,000-point mark for her career this season. Guevara surpassed 1,000 career points in the Lady Rebels 54-48 win at home over Akins on Jan. 24.
“I’m just really excited, that was one of my goals for junior year to reach 1,000 points and I couldn’t have done it without my teammates,” Guevara said. “I’m just very fortunate, and hopefully next year I can get 1,500 or hopefully more.”
Guevara led Hays in points and rebounds versus Lake Travis with eight points and seven boards, while also contributing one block on defense.
“She’s been a big part of our program for the last three years, she was a starter as a freshman,” Preuss said of Guevara. “I’m looking to get her 1,500 by the time she graduates.”
